“Because that’s a bad thing?Being particular about who you’re planning to spend the rest of your life with?”Neil whirled on her.“Back in Puri, you said the men who courted you acted like you were some prize they wanted to mount on the wall like a bloody hunting trophy.”
Constance watched him with barely concealed curiosity.“A good few of them, certainly.”
Neil’s voice echoed off the dome of the pavilion with considerable force.“How can your parents think it’s acceptable to pressure you into marrying someone who’s going to treat you like that?”
“I suppose they think I’m being overly picky.”
He jabbed a finger at her.“Butareyou opposed to marriage?”
“Not on principle.”
Neil threw up his arms.“Then why would they assume you aren’t reasonably and intelligently assessing the merits of the potential candidates that you’ve been introduced to?”
Constance’s eyes danced with humor.“They likely think I’m too young to know any better.”
“So you’re too young to know any better, but old enough to be compelled into precipitously binding yourself to a person who would have an inordinate amount of power over you for the rest of your life.”
Constance’s mouth twitched with a barely suppressed smile.“You realize you sound like Ellie right now.”
“She’s my sister,” Neil retorted.“It’s not as though I’ve never listened to her.”
“I had no idea you were such a liberal thinker.”
“It’s not liberal to state obvious facts!”
Constance patted his arm soothingly.“Of course, it isn’t.So—what do you think?”
“About what?”Neil frowned, momentarily confused.
“Pretending to be engaged with me,” Constance replied.“Just for a little while!As soon as I’ve figured out a better strategy for escaping their scheme, we’ll find a way out of it.”
Neil’s righteous anger crashed into a muddle of worry.“How does one find a way out of an engagement?”
“You just break it off,” Constance airily assured him.
“But… what do we tell everyone?”
“That we changed our minds.”
Neil’s thoughts moved through cake batter.“Have you ever known of someone who called off an engagement before?Was it really that simple?”
Constance shifted uncomfortably.“Not exactly.”
Neil felt a low thrill of alarm.“What does that mean?”
“Well, Albert Harper ran off with his fiancée’s cousin.”
“I see.”
“And then there was Richard Lattimore,” Constance continued.“He turned out to have a load of gambling debts.”
“Right,” Neil returned, unease creeping up his spine.
“Nobody ever gave a reason for why Mr.Lang broke things off with Miss Caffrey—but everyone simply assumed that he found someone with more money.”
Neil stiffened with indignation.“That fellow sounds like a rotter.”
Constance’s face fell with dismay.“Theyallended up sounding like rotters.”She shook her head.“I take it all back.We can’t have a fake engagement.”
